Ar'Kendrithyst

Erick needed to stop by the map to check on what he had seen there.

High above the bowl of Brightwater District, where an orb cascaded even higher above and the white map of Ar’Kendrithyst hovered in the middle of the sky, there were Shades, standing around, eyeing the map. When Erick stepped up to the space, with Hollowsaur trailing behind him, the Shades turned to Erick.

One of them was Lapis, the dark-skinned human Shade of Enchantment, who wore adventuring leathers with lots of pockets. Another was Farix, the blue-skinned incani Shade of Truedark Arcanaeum, who still wore robes. Goldie, the goldscale Shade of Assassination, hovered to the side, wearing a tight set of black cloth armor. None of them looked well rested, or happy about anything at all.

They were already looking Erick’s way as he stepped into the space. Erick regarded them and they regarded him with trepidation. But when Hollowsaur stepped in a bit behind Erick, the Shades all looked his way, their micro and macro expressions shifting to something calmer. Goldie looked hopeful, yet restrained, while the other two looked skeptical.

Hollowsaur spoke up, “Hey, fuckers. Come to join the winning team?”

“I saw you bawl like a baby.” Goldie instantly turned professional, and said, “So no. I won’t be accepting that curse.” With a clinical eye, she said, “Look at you. You can barely stand before the three of us. You’ve been neutered, and that won’t work for me right now. I will, however, take Erick up on his offer after this shit is over and Tania and her ilk are dead.”

Erick had many things to say about all of that, chiefly among those things was that he had not offered anyone anything. He didn’t get a chance to speak, though, before another did.

Lapis said, “I can enact Binding Oaths for us to all work together to—”

“No.” Goldie said, “You’re no better. Erick has morals and you do not. Look, Erick.” She pointed at herself with a manicured talon, saying, “I’m trustworthy, but you don’t know that and Tania and her ilk will start lying to you, now that you’ve made your move to control us. So do you want me in the shadows, or out in the open? Whatever makes you comfortable, but I will not accept a curse at this moment.”

Erick paused in thought. He understood what was happening here, and he did not like it. “… This is one of those ‘no right answer’ situations, I see.”

Goldie shook her head. “There is a right answer. It is one of the two I gave you. Or, I guess I could just hang around and wait for Tania to come for you.” She pointed at the map, at a cluster of blue dots to the east of the Spire. “That’s Tania.” She moved her hand a bit to the right, at almost the same spot, indicating a different cluster of dots, smaller than the first. “That’s Fallopolis.” She dropped her hand. “The ones around those two dots are the stupid ones, fighting out the main fight on those two sides.

“Tania wants to kill everyone except for a few incani, and maybe not even that. Fallopolis wants to kill everyone, except for her own chosen few, and maybe not even that.

“All of the idiots on both sides think that if they win that their leaders will not just turn around and kill them. But that’s what’s gonna happen. The people in those fights are not the ones destined to survive.” She pointed at lone blue dot after lone blue dot, saying, “After Fallopolis or Tania rout the other side and then travel all around Kendrithyst to kill all the stragglers, of course.” She looked to Erick. “I want to survive. And I saved you from Welodio that one time. It should buy me some goodwill, and I mean to take my due at this time. So do you want me out in the open, or hidden?”

Erick looked to the three of them, and then to Hollowsaur. He even gave a glance toward Caizoa, standing off in the distance. Turning back to the Shades, he asked, “Which one of you is going to inevitably betray me?” To their credit, not a single one flinched at Erick’s words. He added, “I guess you hear that all the time.”

Farix said, “Not quite those same words.”

“Normal enough expression, though,” Lapis said, “Which is why I suggest some Binding Oath Bracelets. These are also a normal enough method of ensuring that Oaths are upheld for a while.”

“Which means that you know all the ways to break them,” Erick said. “So why not just take the blessing now?”

Farix, Goldie, Lapis, and even Hollowsaur, each frowned a little. The first three disregarded Erick and turned to each other.

Goldie looked to Lapis, and said, “This really isn’t about him, right now. It’s about us three, here, and maybe more, with him as a guide and a goal.”

Farix said, “We will need his Curse put upon us when this is over or we will just be hunted down like animals by the rest of the world, or whatever batch of Shades come next. So it is about him, somewhat.” He glanced to Erick saying, “But right now Hollowsaur couldn’t hurt a cow—”

Hollowsaur sobbed once, hard, and then schooled that emotion away as fast as he could.

That was completely unexpected.

Erick’s eyes went wide as he turned to the large orcol. “Are you okay?”

“Yes,” Hollowsaur lied. He added, “But I need to go fix the minotaurs. And they’re right. I’m going to be useless in a fight.” He leveled a pointed finger at Erick, and like a kitten trying to be forceful, he said, “Don’t you dare die on me.” He froze. He realized how he had seemed, and what he had just said. “… Shit.” He stepped away, flashing dark.

“A neutered stallion.” Goldie said, “But that’s the goal, when this is over. A curse round the neck is better than oblivion.” She turned to Lapis. “Fine. Let’s do this Binding Bracelet thing.” She asked Erick, “Is that good enough for you? For now?”

It absolutely was not. None of this was good, or okay, or enough. He had wanted some allies, and this was the way, but these people just showed up, all on their own! Hollowsaur was one thing, but that man was dying and Erick had a way to solve that problem…

And then Erick came back to the people in front of him. None of them were willing to take on his blessing. None of them were willing to prove that they were as contrite as Hollowsaur had been forced to be.

And sure, Erick saw that Hollowsaur was rather… different from how he used to be. But it would be a damn long time before Erick considered Hollowsaur a changed person, just because of some words written in a blue box and cursed— Blessed! And blessed into his soul!

But then Erick looked at Lapis, and Farix, and Goldie. They seemed sincere. Erick had already had come-to-Jesus moments with the first two (Maybe. Could have been fake. This was all happening way too fast.) which is likely why they chose to approach him instead of taking their chances on their own. Goldie was a wildcard, though. And yet…

Erick wanted to offer them an honest hand out of the darkness that had been their life.

What had he told Yggdrasil? ‘It was better to be kind and get hurt, than to cause hurt upon another, for violence was hard to stop once it began.’ That statement was still true, even in the face of horror. And that’s who Erick was, at his core. He forgave, perhaps stupidly. But then again, he had seen people turn their lives around just because they were offered a hand up, rather than a jail sentence, or bills they could never pay, or be forced to live with their abusers. Sometimes, all it took was a little kindness to guide the hurt and the hopeless onto the right path.

For what was the alternative?

If Erick didn’t open up another part of his heart, then these people were going to hurt others.

And besides… Erick might not survive this Shadow’s Feast if he didn’t have a few more allies.

A cynical part of himself spoke of how normal people would never get the opportunity Erick had right now. That the Shades were right about at least one thing: Might Makes Right. If Erick wasn’t this powerful, then none of these opportunities would have come his way.

If Erick had been the same person he was when he first fell to Veird, none of these Shades would respect him enough to even entertain the idea of accepting his blessing. They would just kill him, out of hand, and because it would bring them a little bit of joy.

Erick looked to Lapis, and asked, “How do those Binding things work? Do they force specific actions?”

“No. They’re not that binding.” Lapis explained, “They’re an honor-based system stitched with a bit of Time Magic that will alert the rest of the group if one of the members breaks the binding. The point is to not break them, and yes, you can get around these Binding Oath bracelets if you word them incorrectly. But in this case we can word them simple-like so that breaking them can happen with the least bit of misconduct or the immediate intention to commit malfeasance.” She pulled three dark bands from a small pocket on the side of her leathers, speaking to Goldie and Farix, as she said, “What sort of Oath do you want? I am comfortable with ‘Do no harm to our future chances at gaining Erick’s Curse.’”

Farix said, “Could be stronger.”

Goldie suggested, “I would prefer, ‘Do what it takes to gain Erick’s Curse when this current Feast is over, with the intention of following through with the Quest we all saw Hollowsaur get’.”

Erick spoke up, “It’s not a curse. That wording would be an automatic failure of binding. And if you three already know this and are fucking with me, then this temporary relationship is already off to a bad start.”

The three Shades looked at him.

Farix said, “I thought you were joking—”

“It’s really a blessing?” Lapis asked.

“So you’re good with this?” Goldie asked, cutting to the point.

Lapis followed her lead, saying, “We could go with a ‘Blessing’ wording, instead.”

Erick said, “I am not good with this. But I’d rather force more Shades to repent for a hundred years and a thousand deeds than have Tania reestablish power and fuel the Quiet War to a dark end.” The silver star on his chest, that was now just a part of his sunform, turned pleasantly cold. Erick added, “That said, I will not prevent Tania or Fallopolis from coming for you, and I will not stand with you when the time comes.”

Farix said, “Of course not. You’re still Untouchable. I’m going to stand behind you when Tania shows up, and hopefully that will be enough to survive that encounter.”

Lapis frowned. “We can do more than survive if we work together.”

“Impossible.” Goldie said, “She’s still the Champion of Melemizargo, and our divine backing has evaporated. Standing behind Erick is the only way. He is still Untouchable; that much has not changed.”

“What does that even mean?” Erick asked, “Mechanically?”

Lapis said, “Melemizargo placed a limiter on our cores when he called you Untouchable. This limiter will cause a Fracture if we harm you before you harm one of us. It’s a death sentence in almost any normal situation, and especially so since you’ve demonstrated an ability to survive the first strike. But if you harm one of us, that limiter is removed on a one-by-one basis.” She added, “You already attacked Bulgan, though, so his limiter is off.”

“… Shit.” Erick felt a thought creep up. “That was part of the reason for Bulgan going to Candlepoint, wasn’t it?”

Goldie said, “No. Bulgan never had a limiter.”

Lapis said, “What? Really?”

Erick sighed.

Farix said, “Tania still has a limiter, just like the rest of us. If Tania attacked you, Erick, then even her core would crack. We could kill her, then. That is my plan; to get her to attack you. Know it now, so that you’re not surprised later.”

“Mine, too.” Lapis said.

“Mine, as well. I am glad to see we are of the same design.” Goldie emphatically declared, “We have spent too much time talking. Look.” She pointed back to Erick’s map.

Five blue dots were fighting ten blue dots, just south of the Armory, moving back and forth, stepping here and there, their battle taking place over a ten kilometer section of Ar’Kendrithyst. Elsewhere on the map, a good dozen dots moved around the rest of the city, while a good hundred or more sat stationary.

Erick noted to himself that the Armory had a good twenty static blue dots; a good twenty Shade-cores, perhaps? Were they actually Shade-cores? Erick still wasn’t exactly sure. They seemed to be stuck inside architectural parts of the city, as well as inside every Shade. Maybe they were something else, entirely.

He listened to the distant sky. The sounds of battle were too distant to hear, for Fallopolis and Tania’s battle was at least 50 kilometers away and past a lot of intervening crystals.

Goldie said, “Right now, Bulgan is helping Tania fight Fallopolis’s forces, but when Tania has finally killed that crazy Culler, she and Bulgan will come here.” She stared at Erick with white eyes, saying, “Which is why you need us.”

Erick asked, “And what if Fallopolis wins?”

“Then we are doomed to die.” Goldie said, “But if you think to use her to kill us and keep your hands clean, my last act in this life will be to take your head.”

Erick leaned back in the air, saying, “Ahhh. There we go. There’s the threat.”

“Since we are still talking —while we are in the middle of a serious conflict, mind you— instead of solving some problems, then threats have become necessary to provoke movement.” Goldie glanced toward the map. One of the blue dots on the smaller side was gone, now. She glanced to the air, then said, “Stardust is dead. Tania has gained the upper hand. Fallopolis is down to four people on her side. We’re doing this.” She turned to the other two Shades, saying, “We can talk about strategy after we have laid the bedrock for a strategy to happen.”

Farix looked from Lapis to Goldie, saying, “I am comfortable with Goldie’s suggestion for the Oath. ‘Do what it takes to get and then thrive under Erick’s Blessing by the end of this Shadow’s Feast’. How does that sound?”

Lapis held up three bracelets, saying, “Perfect.”

Goldie nodded. “Do it.”

Lapis spoke words of power into the bracelets, “Do what it takes to get and then thrive under Erick’s Blessing by the end of this Shadow’s Feast.”

Like the plug pulled in a bathtub, mana flowed from all around, into the bracelets in Lapis’s hands, turning the dark bands into something prismatic, and then back to black. She slipped one around her left wrist, and then tossed the other two to Goldie and Farix. They wasted no time in putting them on. The bands flickered prismatic, before turning dark again around their wrists.

Erick asked, “Now what?”

Lapis said, “No idea.”

“Prepare and fight hard,” Farix said.

Goldie rattled off events as she saw them, “The most likely turn of events is that Fallopolis loses, she falls back, she incorporates Erick into her strategy, Bulgan gets involved. We kill Bulgan before he kills Erick. Tania enrages and wipes the floor with all of us. We all die, including Erick. Tania goes into hiding, to orchestrate the downfall of humanity from the shadows.” She looked to the air, as her aura turned diffuse, like a mist spreading from her soul. She began making shit up; guessing, “The World Tree under Sininindi is used to enact Scripts on the other worlds of this orbital system. A century or two passes. Tania makes her way to one of these new worlds, after they stop looking for her. Maybe Melemizargo has a new Clergy by then. Maybe they’re already searching for her… to kill or to drag into their hierarchy… And… That’s all I got. Can’t see too far into the future, but that’s the closest to the truth, right now.”

Erick would have paled if he had been in his human body. He recognized a pattern in Goldie’s casual use of magic. Goldie wasn’t just rattling off events as she saw them. She was actually seeing future events. Erick glanced to Farix and Lapis, and saw two very concerned people, their worry showing in the lines of their faces. He looked to Goldie, and saw nothing but certainty.

Erick asked, “How often do you use the future to determine the present?”

“All the time.” Goldie said, “I’m usually perfectly reliable to a good five minutes out. Past that, it gets nebulous. Sharing what I know about the future usually ruins it, sending the paths into spirals and fractures. But I am telling you now because the futures where I don’t tell you are less-hopeful than the ones where I do.” She added, “This is the only time I will be discussing my power.”

“No.” Erick said, “No.” He demanded, “Tell me why you can’t kill Tania, yourself. Your power seems too powerful.”

“Because, Erick.” Goldie said, “Time watching is a trick, and tricks do not matter in the face of overwhelming power.”

“I always wondered how you did what you did.” Farix asked, “But what now?”

Goldie said, “I’m good with defending here.”

Lapis said, “Here is fine. We’ll be able to see them coming from every angle without dividing ourselves off into sentry-eyes.”

Goldie lifted her head up, as she turned toward Caizoa, who remained in the sky, in the far distance. “She’s going to be a problem, but there’s not much we can do about that.” Goldie turned to Erick, saying, “If you make yourself truly vulnerable in front of her, she’ll probably kill you. Hard to tell, though. Too much divine interference.”

“I wasn’t going to do that, anyway.”

“Uh-huh,” Goldie said, unconvinced.

Erick frowned, then looked to the other two. “You two got any special powers?”

Lapis said, “Tania and her kind raided my Forge, so all I have is what I have on me, and these trinkets will make themselves known at the appropriate time.”

Farix snorted. “About what you’d expect from the Shade of Enchantment.”

“Since we’re at the end, why not tell us all what your abilities are, then, Professor?” Lapis needled. “Never seen you do much of anything!”

“Ethereal Elemental-Blood explosions.” Farix said, “Back when I had the Script, I could do times-five multipliers, all day long. It’s a lot better these days.”

Lapis’s eyes briefly went wide. She looked between Erick and Farix, asking, “Did you—”

Goldie sighed, loudly.

Lapis smirked as she couldn’t help but to postulate, “Blood explosions, eh? Did you put that criminal up to extorting Erick?”

Erick looked to Farix. The incani’s face betrayed nothing. No visible, or invisible part of him did, either. But Erick still stared, wondering how he would answer.

Farix said, “The only hand I had in all of that was teaching others how to properly explode various things, and bodies make very good material.”

Erick sighed, hated everything for a brief moment, then decided to accept this lot in life, for now, as he banished an uncomfortable thought and turned his attention to the map. Hollowsaur’s dot, presumably, had been moving around the Jungle for a little while now, but it had stopped for the last five minutes at a place near the water’s edge. Erick sent an Ophiel stepping through the light, in that direction.

Erick changed topics, “So you all saw that Quest he got when he showed it to me, right?”

Nods all around.

“So how are you spying on me, exactly?”

Lapis said, “Long range sentry-eyes.”

“Shadow Sight,” Goldie said.

“Shadow Sight,” Farix said.

Farix and Goldie looked to each other for a brief moment.

“Whatever. Okay. Fine. So. Did Hollowsaur fake that Quest?” Erick said, “He ran off rather fast, and he certainly did not look healthy when he went. I heard that faking a Script screen even does bad things for Shades.”

Farix suddenly narrowed his eyes at Hollowsaur’s dot. He said, “I certainly hope it was real. Fucker better not have faked it.”

Goldie shook her head, saying, “He didn’t fake it.” She spoke to the sky, “And I want the same damn one, Rozeta.” She winced as she spoke Rozeta’s name. Blood trickled from her nose, but she just wiped it away. “Yeah. Yeah. I hear your complaints about my existence.” She spoke to the group, “We’ve got some downtime till the fight gets to us. Anyone got any bright ideas?”

“Let’s move to some other location.” Erick glanced down. Somewhere far below, maybe 25 kilometers deep and past a heavy layer of white light, there were people living around the Brightwater. He said, “I don’t want stray spells to hit anyone down there.”

Goldie said, “Fine by me. Let’s go up another twenty kilometers.”

Lapis asked, “To the Edge?”

“Yes.” Goldie said, “Having a wall to one side might help. Crystal towers certainly won’t help.” She glanced at the map again, saying, “Too many elemental-aligned Shades in there.”

- - - -

Caizoa watched as Erick stepped through the sky, with three Shades at his side. First, he goes Cursing Hollowsaur into a meek puppy, then he gets three more to divulge critical abilities, just like that, and then he actually works with them? He was too naive, for sure. If he ever met the Converter Angel, he would become the Wasteland’s greatest threat. He’d surely try to talk to the damn thing, and that would doom them all.

Shades couldn’t be corrupted by the Angels, but Erick was already way more powerful than many Shades, though he acted weak, for some bizarre reason.

It was truly odd how he had gained so much power, in such a short time. His whole planar-story had to be cowshit, of course. Some sort of act. Some sort of ploy. Maybe he had been a Shade all along? Supposedly, he had met Melemizargo in his first moments on Veird, but that would have been insane, right? That couldn’t have possibly happened.

The Black Star spoke in her mind, ‘I am starting to come around on the necessity of killing Erick. He is too easy to trick. He is too enamored with untainted peace. He cannot get done what needs to get done.’ The artifact added, ‘But I sense a disturbance in your own resolve. Pray tell, what are you thinking?’

‘I am thinking that I need to show him that Shades cannot be trusted. Uncle was the only good one. And then Tania killed him… And then Fallopolis killed everyone… else...’ Caizoa held back tears, recalling a horrific morning and an hour of fighting for her life, and yet failing her friends.

Everything had gone so crazy, and then she touched the Black Star, and finally found peace in the storm, only to be reminded that everyone she knew was dead. She had no idea where one problem started, or ended, or even how she ended up pointed at Erick in the first place. She did know that part of the plan everyone had decided upon was to kill Erick, if they got the chance. That part was as true in the beginning as it was right now, and made all the more true for Erick’s displayed power. He had shut down that other Shade, Mallor, with two spells! He was too strong.

But… Caizoa wondered if her memories had been altered.

Maybe they had?

Maybe she was going a bit crazy. She had heard that Fallopolis had killed Anopix, but…

Everything she heard in this Dead City was a lie. Uncle Anopix always said that. Don’t trust any of the other Shades.

And just now, she heard that Tania wanted to ‘orchestrate the downfall of humanity’.

So that meant that she should work with them, right? But… Uncle Anopix always said to not trust the other Shades. Uncle was a good man. The Shades of Ar’Kendrithyst were the strongest, yes, but they were also the most evil. Anopix was a good, honorable man.

… Could Tania have killed him? He would have opposed total war. He just wanted to destroy the Angels and the moon, Celes. And a few humans, too, yes, but not all of them. Only the ones in charge.

… This was too much. As a headache threatened, Caizoa came to a conclusion: All Shades Need To Die. A simple, elegant idea. The Shades killed Uncle, and now they would die, too, and that included Tania.

Erick’s death could come later.

She asked, ‘If you’re still not convinced that Erick needs to die, then are you up for Shade killing?’

‘Of course. I have seen these people at their worst for a long time. Even the one Erick has Blessed is still a liability. They all need to die and leave this world behind.’ The Black Star added, ‘Erick might be salvageable, though, so I am glad you are thinking thoughts along those lines.’

‘I’m just pursuing all ideas. Do you think he could actually range-kill the Converter Angel without subjecting himself to danger?’

‘I only know the current world through your eyes, but from what I’ve seen and felt from you, and from previous interactions with archmages of his caliber, Erick could probably range-kill the Converter Angel.’ The Black Star sent, ‘It would be much easier for you to track the Angel down and do it yourself, though.’

Caizoa moved forward, to stand before the vacated map, floating in the air. She looked it over, and asked, ‘Which one is Fallopolis?’

‘Are you still going to go after her?’ The Black Star lit up a silver blot in Caizoa’s vision, right over one of the blue dots on Erick’s map. ‘There she is. It appears she’s down to 4 compatriots. I would be happy with her death, too.’

‘And Tania?’

‘I cannot offer full protection from a Champion of Melemizargo, but I can offer a minute of protection.’

‘Understood. Tania?’

A different silver dot lit up on the map. Tania was surrounded by seven blue dots.

Caizoa hefted her three-meter long sword. Divine fire flared around her blue armor and in her eyes, as she said, “I didn’t plan on killing all the Shades, but when in Ar’Kendrithyst…”

‘You could use the levels, anyway.’

‘ I could. I only got 25% Participation on that last one.’

- - - -

Ophiel stepped back to the edge of the map, as Caizoa departed.

Erick searched for Violet, using a DNA sample he had already gathered, well before now.

He found traces of her in the Palace District, next to the brand new kilometer-wide hole in the ground that had been Quilatalap’s house, and some of the Palace. He did not find Violet, herself. He had hoped that he could have found her, but it was not to be. He searched for Violet, herself, just to be sure. Zero results.

Erick searched for Quilatalap through his DNA.

Quilatalap’s DNA was shit, though. It might not even have been real. Zero blue dots in the Brightwater. Zero blue dots on the rest of the map. A search for the man himself also turned up nothing.

He spied on Hollowsaur, both with a check through the [Cascade Imaging] for his DNA and through the Ophiel he had sent the orcol’s way. Hollowsaur’s DNA was shit, too. Erick was beginning to suspect that Shades were more shadow than true substance, and undead might be much the same, but different. Erick wondered if he would have the same problems searching for the Converter Angel.

Erick might have gotten zero results for Hollowsaur’s DNA, but he already knew where the man was. Erick switched the map back to searching for Shade cores, and then he switched his sight into the Ophiel who he had sent Hollowsaur’s way.

Almost all of the minotaurs on the beach were crashed out on the sands, while Hollowsaur went from person to person, touching souls, and transforming flesh. The minotaurs in front of the man were more beast than person, with massive horns and shaggy fur, with hooves for hands and feet, while their mouths were made of fangs. The ones behind him looked like people. Humanish, or orcolish, with shaggy red hair and bronzed skin, but no fur. Some had horns. All had hooves for feet. All had souls that were less monstrous, and more normal. None of them had been wearing clothes, but while Hollowsaur healed his wrongdoing and moved onto the next, his small green people began moving amid the changed and shoving them into clothes while they slept on, unaware of their surroundings.

Erick turned a [Scry] eye toward the people at the Bend in the North River. The people he had saved from Dorofiend had gathered up thirty more. They must have caught wind of the current battles raging across Ar’Kendrithyst, for they were layering their defenses wherever they could. Their various walls of magic would give them a little time to escape, or possibly weather the storm if they only took glancing blows.

From what Erick was seeing, the only way for them to survive would be to get lucky, and not experience the battle, at all.

For Erick saw the battle, now, after stepping high enough into the sky to crest the ridge of the Brightwater District’s curtain wall, and then step higher. Much of Ar’Kendrithyst was laid before him, far down below. A good distance away, thirty or forty kilometers or more, Erick wasn’t sure, great plumes of black swallowed the land beyond red-purple kendrithyst towers. Waves of red smashed the sky like a deity striking a gong, sending a shake across the heavens that was heard all the way to where Erick, Goldie, Farix, and Lapis stood, waiting for the fight to come to them, and for the world to end.

“Shit.” Erick said, “How fucking big was that red smash? Who did that?”

“Ten kilometers wide, but that doesn’t matter. It won’t happen again.” Goldie said, “That was Crimsonair. He’s dead, now. Fallopolis is down to three extras. She might start fighting for real.”

“Ha,” Erick said, without mirth. “Calling them ‘extras’.”

Farix joked, “There goes my rejuvenation treatments.”

Lapis chuckled, a nervous reaction, and then offered, “I’ve got some rings that help with that.”

Goldie looked to them, and said, “You two need to take this more seriously.”

Farix said, “I preferred you when you were bubbly and drunk at the party.”

“And I preferred being that person.” Goldie said, “But needs must, and all that shit.”

“When this is over, I’m turning hermit.” Lapis said, “Far away from everyone. Catch me teaching a few good students every year like Quilatalap, or something.”

Farix said, “That won’t be enough to satisfy that Quest we saw.”

“I’ll figure it out.” Lapis said, “I’m sure this is just another trial of Our Dark God. We can survive this and come out stronger on the other side.”

Goldie said, “I’m going to end the wars in Nelboor. That should be acceptable for a few thousand good deeds.”

Farix asked, “How are you going to do that without killing?”

“That’s easy.” Goldie said.

Erick waited.

Goldie didn’t elaborate. Farix didn’t pursue the rest of her answer. Lapis had her eyes fixed to the north, where crashing wind sliced the sky with shockwaves, and lines of darkness carved through kendrithyst towers, lopping off tops to then crash down into the darkness below.

Goldie said, “I’m heading further up, and then I’m vanishing for the fight. I’ll help from the shadows.” She stepped upward, flashing darkness, her voice trailing away as she vanished from sight.

Lapis nervously chuckled, again, and said, “I’m… I’m going to…” Her voice trailed off. She stepped up, into the sky, past the illusions of false planets hanging up there, going further and further until she was barely visible.

Erick realized, with a start, that the illusion had changed. The sky used to be a mess of worlds, surrounded by a thick Mana Ocean, but almost all of those myriad worlds were gone, now. Belatedly, Erick realized that when the Red Smash had happened, three seconds later, an illusionary world of buildings and architecture vanished, like it had never been. The deaths of the Shades killed their illusions.

With a bit of dark humor, Erick realized that he might actually get to see which illusion was Fallopolis’s, if only after the fact. But that was for later. For now...

Erick looked to Farix, and at the black band on his wrist. “What’s your plan?”

Farix took a moment. He breathed, as though going through scenarios in his head. He said, “I will summon some helpers.” Farix cast a bloody dot into the air that became like a gravity well, sucking up ambient mana. The bloody spell drifted away, then hovered at a far distance, while a faint tendril of intent connected it to Farix. The Shade summoned another, then said to Erick, “I look forward to working with you all if we survive this.”

“How is this supposed to work when none of us have worked together before?”

“Just don’t worry about hitting teammates.” Farix said, “Try not to take any direct hits, either. I imagine that Tania will stop using area spells once she comes this way, just so she doesn't risk hurting you and causing a deviation in her core.”

For a brief moment, Erick wondered if he could solve all the world’s problems by making himself vulnerable. And then his brain started working again, [Hunter’s Instincts] seeming to poke his thoughts back on track.

Farix summoned another three bloody orbs while Erick had his moment of thought. Those orbs now floated around him in perfect formation. Erick looked to the man, and wondered when, exactly, he would betray them.

Farix noticed Erick’s glance, and said, “Thanks for agreeing to this. I know we sort of shoved this at you without much notice, but I’m glad you decided to trust us, at least a little.”

Erick was still running [Hunter’s Instincts], and had been running it this whole time. With his Regeneration, and with the Health Cost reductions of his boosted Dexterity, [Hunter’s Instincts] cost almost nothing to maintain. Almost nothing.

But the Skill had a habit of warping his perceptions of reality, of seeing danger everywhere.

It had served him well when Hollowsaur was trapped inside glass, and then later, when he had freed the orcol. Erick got no perceptions of danger from him. But here, alone with Farix, there was a danger.

So Erick decided to test the waters, exposing a fact he had kept to himself until now, as he said, “I know you orchestrated some of that hit upon me; that shit with Poriti. I don’t need Lapis to point that out. Not that she’s any better, with her human experimentation to make those new Stat trees.” As Farix flinched, Erick continued, “You couldn’t get the Stat fruits you wanted, or something? Perhaps it was the rings themselves on my fingers, that were the big prize. They unlocked every Stat, and they’re artifacts. That makes them at least as good as those elemental dice that Toymaker showed off. I could see some sort of many-pronged scheme to take them from me, though threatening my family was in poor form.”

Farix casually summoned another blood orb, and said, “Do you really want to do this right now?”

As if to punctuate his statement, a part of the world 35 kilometers away was swallowed by a black orb. When the orb vanished, the tops of the towers that had been there were now gone, as though they had been scooped away.

“No.” Erick said, “I would like to not do this at all. But then you all invited me into here for this Feast, and started this chain of events yourselves. I am only thankful that whatever schemes everyone else had planned on days four through ten are likely as dead as their planners.”

After a long moment, Farix lied, “Tania forced me to participate in that shit with Poriti.”

Erick would have liked to have been surprised at the attempt to lie, but he was not. His voice stung with sarcasm, “What a convenient set of circumstances for you.”

“Fine.” Farix said, “You want me to come clean?”

“Yes. I would.”

“I never wanted to be a Shade. I wanted to be a damned researcher. But the only way anyone survives this place is to get on top and stay on top. So I did what had to be done.”

“What does that have to do with threatening my family, and setting bombs in kids?”

“That wasn’t me. Not directly.” Farix scowled. He breathed deep. He said, “I gave my son, Poriti, to the Rollini Family thirty years ago. He found out I was his father when he was 16.” Farix said, “He sought me out, and won my respect. I told him I would help as much as I could, but I would not shield him from his consequences. He was a good kid, but I was not a good father, for I couldn’t be. The rest of the Clergy would have killed him just to see what I would do. So he laid low. For a long time, he was a part of the White Market of Truedark, and he would tell me what was happening in the criminal world of my Arcanaeum.” He sighed. “And then… Either Lapis gave him the Charisma Fruit, or he got involved with her some other way. Things went downhill from there. I always told him I would never protect him if his schemes caught too big of a fish, and he never tested me against the Clergy, but I ended up helping him out of way too many problems. In the end, I couldn’t help him survive his encounter with you.”

Erick nodded, as several wriggling thoughts slipped into place. “You didn’t care about the bombs in the kids at all, did you?”

“Of course I cared about that.” Farix declared, “I won’t kill kids. How the fuck do you think that Poriti knew of that fucking fact? I told him one day! Stupidly told him. Fuck.”

“Well…” Erick decided, “With any luck, you’ll be able to make up for all the shit you’ve done.”

“… yeah, yeah.”

“It’s too bad that power is so necessary to this life.” Erick asked, “Have you ever considered that all your problems stem from a need for power?”

Farix snorted a laugh. “Yeah. And all of the solutions come from the same place.” He added, “This is a world of monsters, Erick. If I wasn’t in the Clergy, I would have died to the stragglers that make it past the walls and down into Truedark, or to those who kill more than I killed.”

“Then maybe there shouldn’t be any monsters.”

“There are always monsters.” Farix said, “Behind every corner. Under every bed. In the forests and in the deserts.”

“You misunderstand. Maybe Melemizargo shouldn’t have made the monsters in the first place. That’s what this whole Shadow’s Feast is about, isn’t it? The First Triumph of Melemizargo against the Script. The creation of the monsters.”

Farix scrunched his eyes at Erick. “Melemizargo didn’t make them. Rads have always formed inside all living creatures, even back in the Old Cosmology. Back then they were a lot more dangerous than these days, too. After the Sundering, Melemizargo’s First Feast was a result of asking the monsters to fight for him, to tear down the Script that had imprisoned him, and them. He barely had to ask. Every single creature with a rad in their heart knew, instinctively, what had been done to them. That’s why the monsters and the ancients still fight, to this day, against anyone who has Matriculated into the Script.”

Interesting way to view the facts, but Erick instantly latched onto a problem with his argument. “What about the slimes?”

Farix laughed. “Don’t fall asleep with a slime in the room. No matter how bouncy and cute they are, they’ll still try to suffocate you and eat you alive—” He looked across the Dead City, and muttered, “Shit.”

Erick gazed down at the bright crystal towers of Ar’Kendrithyst, and watched as three detonations of magical power rocked the land. With a glance down to the Ophiel near the map, he saw that two of those three detonations had happened on Fallopolis’s side. Only one of them happened on Tania’s side.

“Why isn’t Tania just Judging everyone?” Erick asked, feeling a rising panic. Fallopolis was alone, now, and she was coming this way.

“Limited use, I’d imagine, otherwise we wouldn’t have time to have this conversation. I’m not too sure how Tania’s Champion magic works.” Farix stepped up, higher into the sky, dragging his bloody orbs with him as he ascended, saying, “Try not to aim at us, Erick. We’ll do the same.”

As Farix went out of sight, into the sky, Erick considered the facts in front of him. Maybe Tania needed someone else to kill Fallopolis? That made more sense than a limit on her magic. Fallopolis had survived a Judgment already, after all.

Fallopolis stepped right in front of Erick. Her hair was wild, her kendrithyst staff was broken. Her flouncy black dress was scorched and burned, along with her flesh underneath. She smiled, wild and crazy as she spied Erick. “Oh! HELLO THERE! Fancy meeting you in this place.” She cackled, and said, “I hope you’re ready!”

Another Fallopolis stepped into the air, not too far away.

There was a surreal moment.

Fallopolis looked at Fallopolis, and then the second one’s eyes went wide, as she said, “It’s the Witch! Kill the bitch!”